Shohei Ohtani: Who is the Angels’ new guy?

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Japan’s starter Shohei Ohtani pitches against South Korea during the first inning of their semifinal game at the Premier12 world baseball tournament at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo.Japanese star Shohei Ohtani is bringing his arm and bat to the Los Angeles Angels, pairing him with two-time MVP Mike Trout. Ohtani’s agent put out a statement Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, saying the prized two-way player had decided to sign with the Angels, a surprise winner over Seattle, Texas and several other teams. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

It was spring of 2010 and Ohtani, a newcomer on the baseball team at Hanamaki Higashi High, was already known as one of the best youth players in their region. Ohsawa thought the new guy was tall and skinny.

“I was, like, ‘So, this is the Ohtani people talk about.”

That talking hasn’t stopped.

Ohtani, the biggest of several new names on the Angels – and the biggest new name in Major League Baseball – arrives for the start of spring training this week as a mix of off-the-chart talent and 21st century myth.

Shohei Ohtani talks to reporters after being introduced by the Angels during a press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is introduced by the Angels during a press conference on Saturday afternoon at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Japanese fans cheers as Shohei Ohtani is introduced by the Angels during a press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Young Japanese fans watch as Shohei Ohtani is introduced by the Angels during a press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Shohei Ohtani talks to reporters after being introduced by the Angels during a press conference on Saturday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Shohei Ohtani waves to fans during a news conference in Sapporo, northern Japan Monday, Dec. 25, 2017. Los Angeles Angels-bound Ohtani bid farewell to fans of his former Japanese club Nippon Ham Fighters on Monday as he sets off to join his new team. (Masanori Takei/Kyodo News via AP)

Shohei Ohtani, left, poses with a message presented by Nippon Ham Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama during a news conference in Sapporo, northern Japan Monday, Dec. 25, 2017. Los Angeles Angels-bound Ohtani bid farewell to fans of his former Japanese club on Monday as he sets off to join his new team. The message reads ” I believe you will be the world’s best player.” (Masanori Takei/Kyodo News via AP)

In Japan, at 23, Ohtani’s celebrity already transcends sport. He’s big, strong, humble; spectacularly good at his craft and good looking. Think LeBron James or Tom Brady; maybe Mike Trout with some Hollywood sizzle. A dozen Japanese journalists are assigned full-time to the Ohtani beat, and that beat lasts all year.

None of this figures to change with Ohtani in the United States.

On the field, scouts see a player with the potential to re-shape modern baseball. His skills are such that he might be both an ace-level starting pitcher and an all-star hitter. Nobody predicts it’ll happen for sure – the odds against it remain long – but Ohtani has even conservative baseball types uttering a sacred name: “Babe Ruth.”

So, who is this guy?

Old school

“He’s mischievous,” said Ohsawa, who insists his friend – with whom he still stays in touch – hasn’t changed much from the kid he spent three years with in high school.

“He is funny. He likes to tease, and be teased.”

On the field – in practices and workouts as well as in games – Ohtani is a beast.

Ohsawa says the player is relentlessly hungry to improve and curious about how to make that happen. Ohtani still devotes himself to whatever is needed to get better – nutrition, workouts, lifestyle – even though he was arguably the best player in Japan’s Nippon Baseball League.

But off the field, Ohsawa says, that drive isn’t necessarily apparent.

“It’s impressive how he switches himself on and off,” Ohsawa said.

Humility is a big deal in Japanese culture; a much more valued trait than it is in the United States. Ohtani, publicly and privately, seems to value that concept.

“I’m not sure if I’ve been able to give back to Japanese baseball,” Ohtani said in the November press conference when he announced his intent to play in the U.S. major leagues, a move he made even though he left tens of millions of dollars on the table.

Ohtani didn’t answer questions for this story – he’s waiting on media until Feb. 14, when pitchers and catchers hold their first workout of spring training. And when he does talk, Japanese-speaking media will have an advantage as he does not yet speak much English. But interviews with people who know Ohtani personally or professionally suggest that he has stayed down-to-earth even as fame and attention could have engulfed him.

That trait, they say, has helped Ohtani pull off the two-way success he’s had so far.

Shigehito Akimura, an editor at the Sports Nippon newspaper who has covered Japan’s professional baseball for nearly 30 years, said he’d love to see Ohtani break Babe Ruth’s 1918 record of 13 wins and 11 home runs, particularly since this would be the 100th anniversary of that feat.

Those numbers would be revolutionary, baseball-wise. But Akimura, among others, suggests they wouldn’t be enough; much more is expected.

“Maybe 20 wins and 30 home runs?” he said. “It makes you think he may be able to pull off such a feat after watching what he’s done the past five years.”

Still, Akimura says whether Ohtani succeeds in the big leagues or not, in Japan he’s is already a singular figure.

“He’s done things nobody else has done.”

Defying expectations

In 2014, two years out of high school, Ohtani played 87 games for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon Baseball League. The league is considered about equal to Triple-A baseball in the United States. Ohtani won 11 games as a starting pitcher and hit 10 home runs as an outfielder. No one had reached double figures in both categories, in the majors or Japan, since Babe Ruth did it during his last year as a pitcher, in 1918.

“He’s the kind of player who makes those of us who play baseball … say ‘wow!’,” said Hideki Kuriyama, manager of the Fighters.

But as baseball fans have watched him run up big statistics, casual baseball fans – even people who don’t track the sport at all – have been treated to intensely-documented Ohtani dramatics that would make the fictional baseball star, Roy Hobbs, blush.

On July 3, 2016, Ohtani started as leadoff hitter and a pitcher for the first time. He homered on the first pitch of the game.

That same year, radar guns captured an Ohtani fastball at 102.5 mph, a Japanese record.

Though distance numbers aren’t available, scouts who get paid to be accurate about such things say several Ohtani home runs have reached 500 feet. Since 1996, when modern distance tracking became commonly used in major league baseball, fewer than 15 home runs have been measured at that distance.

But the accuracy of such things might miss the point. Akimura, the sports editor, suggests Ohtani’s appeal goes beyond baseball.

“Has there been any other player who gives you so much hope?” he asked.

“I don’t think so.”

Myth building

Born July 5, 1994, Ohtani grew up in a rural city of Oshu in the cold Iwate Prefecture, about 300 miles north of Tokyo. One of the attractions at Oshu is The Cattle Museum.

Ohtani’s father played some semi-professional baseball. His mother was a national level badminton player in high school.

Ohtani began playing baseball in second grade for a local Little League team. As a left-handed hitter (he throws right handed) Ohtani hit so many baseballs into the river beyond the right field fence that his coach told him to start swinging to the opposite field, according to a news report.

In high school, when exhausted teammates napped between practices and classes, Ohtani read books on topics such as nutrition to improve his game, Ohsawa said. Though it’s unclear if the books suggested this, Ohtani gained 45 pounds during high school by eating 10 bowls of rice a day.

By his final year in high school, he was able to throw a fastball tracked at 99 mph, a high school record.

“He (also) had (hitting) skills to make good contact with the baseball and hit a long ball,” said Takashi Ofuchi, who scouted Ohtani in high school for the Fighters.

“I knew for certain he’d be our No. 1 draft pick and will become a top player when fully developed.”

It didn’t take long. He was playing for the Fighters the summer after he left high school and made his first all-star game that year, as an outfielder. He had just turned 19.

Road to Anaheim

It wasn’t just Japanese teams looking to land Ohtani.

Major League scouts watched him throughout high school, and Ohtani made no secret with his teammates that his goal was to play in the U.S.

Before the Japanese baseball draft, Ohtani publicly announced he would skip the Japanese professional league and go straight to the U.S. after high school, a rare move.

“As a baseball player, I want to aim for the top and play at a really high level,” Ohtani said in a recent TV interview.

“Initially, I wanted to become a professional player (in Japan). And as I moved closer to that goal, I simply wanted to play at an even higher level.”

After that announcement most Japanese teams decided not to draft Ohtani – except for the Fighters, who adhere to a policy of drafting the best available prospect no matter what. (In Japan, any team could have drafted him. If multiple teams pick a player, there’s a lottery to decide which team gets his rights.)

Ofuchi, the Fighters scout, said Ohtani didn’t reveal much of his true intentions or show reactions during their initial meetings.

“It was difficult because I felt like I was negotiating with an adult, not a high school student,” Ofuchi said. “He’s really smart in that sense.”

Ofuchi said he learned Ohtani wanted three things – to become a top player in the U.S. major leagues, to play at the top level for a long time, and to achieve something no one has done.

The Fighters then changed their strategy: They sold themselves to Ohtani by focusing on how they could help him achieve his dreams.

He’d have a better chance to succeed in the U.S., they told him, if he first established himself in Japan. They backed this claim by showing him data on every Japanese and Korean player who had succeeded – and those who didn’t – in the United States.

And the Fighters suggested they would let him pitch and hit, which Ohtani said was a big factor in his decision.

The negotiations were national news, and the Fighters’ strategy to woo Ohtani later was written about as a business tactic.

Kuriyama said selling Ohtani as two-way player was a natural proposition considering Ohtani’s talents. It also was a way to keep both options on the table when Ohtani decided to go to the major leagues.

After month of back and forth with the Fighters, Ohtani decided to stay in Japan – at least for a while.

Dreams, not money

Kuriyama faced criticism in Japan, but he kept his promise to play Ohtani both ways.

Making adjustments along the way, the team eventually settled on using Ohtani as a designated hitter for a few games between his starts as a pitcher.

As Ohtani’s statistics improved, the critics shut up.

“People figured out he’s the real deal in his second year,” said Naoyuki Yanagihara, who’s covered Ohtani since his rookie year for Sports Nippon. “If Ohtani cannot succeed in the major leagues, I don’t think any other Japanese player would.”

Ohtani’s toughest critic might have been himself, often saying he hasn’t accomplished anything and feels no satisfaction.

“He’s not saying that to be polite,” Kuriyama said. “He truly feels he still isn’t playing baseball the way he wants to.”

For all five years, Ohtani lived in a Fighters dormitory adjacent to the team’s training facility. Ohtani worked out (and still works out) in the gym every morning, including holidays. He also still takes supplements wherever he goes and, so far, there has been no talk that the supplements are anything other than protein.

He doesn’t drink or go out at night much, even though it is frowned upon for young players in Japan to say no when their older teammates invite them.

“He’s a nice kid,” said Brandon Laird, a former major leaguer who grew up in Orange County and played with Ohtani the last three seasons. “He’s kind of quiet. He just does his own thing. He has his routines.

Ohtani, who received $2.5 million from the Fighters last year, lets his parents manage his finances. Japanese media says Ohtani receives about $900 of allowance each month, and that he doesn’t spend on much other than sweets, crepes especially.

Ohtani joined a fantasy football league with some of his American teammates in Hokkaido. He was the only Japanese player in that league, said Anthony Bass, a former Major Leaguer who spent the 2016 season with the Fighters. Ohtani won just one game, probably because of his lack of football knowledge.

“What impressed me the most is his ability to separate his superstar status to that of a really good teammate,” Bass said. “He’s a very down to earth person.”

Perhaps, what’s most revealing about Ohtani’s character is his decision to come to the U.S. as a 23-year-old. If he had waited until he was 25, he would not have been subject to Major League Baseball rules that restrict spending on players previously committed to international professional teams.

If he’d waited, Ohtani could have commanded as much as $200 million.

Instead, he got a signing bonus of just over $2.3 million from the Angels. He’ll also make the major league minimum salary of $545,000 in 2018.

“I still consider myself far from a complete player,” Ohtani said in Japanese when he announced his decision to come to the U.S., “with so many things I must work on.”

Tomoya Shimura covers Irvine for the Orange County Register. Prior to his stint at the Register, Tomoya had worked as a news reporter and sports writer for the Daily Press in Victorville. He won several awards for his work there, including the best business story from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Tomoya received his M.S. in sports studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his B.A. in liberal arts from International Christian University in Tokyo.

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